A Glance Through The Window
by ilovetoplaybball
Summary: That’s when it dawned on her all of East High was changed. If you looked through the door of what had happened the previous year or the past summer, one would clearly see Troy and Gabriella. However, if one happened to glance through a window, they woul


-A Glance Through the Window-

Bayli Martin stood at her locker on the first day of senior year. Her locker was located right near the front of the school building so all of her classmates had to pass her to get where they were going.

She was smiling broadly at the locker as she put various pictures from her summer and previous years all over it. She had four colored folders stacked inside with four others inside her large purse that she was using as her book bag.

'It's going to be a good year,' she thought to herself.

"BAYLI!!!"

Four girls in jean shorts, various colored tank-tops, and matching "Varsity Wildcat Cheerleading" jackets were walking over to her.

"Hey girls."

"Bayli, it is _so_ good to see you. Do you know that this was like, one of the first years that I was excited to come to school?! I missed you _so_ much over the summer! You always had stupid work or some stupid work party, we hardly even got to see you!" exclaimed one of the girls.

"I know," Agreed a brunette by the name of Cindy, "But at least you were with Troy, Chad, Jason, and Zeke all summer! Please tell us which one of them you snagged and are now dating!"

Bayli didn't really know how to respond. She definitely did not snag one of those guys, nor did she want to.

"Guys, I-"

"Bay-_li _!" Two voices rang out above the loud bustle of the hallway. From the way her name was broken into two parts and the deep emphasis on the last syllable Bayli knew exactly who it was, Troy and Chad.

Bayli smiled as she turned, hearing behind her a murmur of, "Guess she didn't snag Troy."

"Hey guys!" She responded as Troy, Gabriella, Ryan, Taylor, and Chad all made their way over to her.

"Did you know it was us?" Chad asked from just behind Troy and Gabriella.

Bayli laughed, "No Chad, you guys have only been yelling my name like that for the past three months, but I had _no_ idea that it was you."

Troy and Chad smiled broadly as they high-fived.

"Long time no see," Gabriella giggled with sarcasm, her hand held tightly by Troy's.

"I know, we should have just had a sleepover or something," Bayli agreed.

"Oh! That's a good idea!" Gabriella quickly agreed, "Tay, do you want to do a sleepover sometime this week?"

"On a school night Gab?"

"Sure, why not? We're seniors; we can do whatever we want to do!"

"I'm in! Just let me know whose place and what night," Bayli agreed.

"Alright," Taylor gave in, "We'll talk to everyone in homeroom. Mention it to Mol?"

"Of course," Bayli nodded her head in assurance.

"Alright, sorry guys, but we had better get going. We only have a few more minutes before homeroom starts and we have to go to our lockers yet," Ryan interjected.

"Yeah, Ryan's right. We'll see you at lunch though Bay and tell Mollee that we said hi," Troy said as he started to pull Gabriella away from the group.

"Alright guys, I'll see you later, but I don't know what lunch I have yet so I don't know if I'll see you there."

All of the five others looked at each other as sly smiles graced each of their faces.

"Oh you will," Chad assured her.

"Which lunch you have depends on what class you have sixth period-right?" Taylor added.

Bayli was lost at this point, but just nodded her head with her eye brows furrowed together.

"Well, when you get your schedule, check out what you have sixth period…and who the teacher is," Troy said.

Now it was Gabriella's turn to talk and she decided to clear things up for her friend, "Troy talked his dad into putting us all into the same _Adult and Family Living _class! Mr. Bolton teaches it so Troy got him to put us all together and let us have it sixth period so that we could have lunch together!"

"No way!" Bayli yelled in excitement.

"Yes way," Troy answered with a role of his eyes at her yell, "Now we really have to go."

A collective "Bye" was heard as Troy, Chad, Gabriella, and Taylor all laughed and bounced down the hallway together.

Before Ryan followed them he wrapped his arms around Bayli and gave her a huge hug.

"Happy first day of school Bays," He whispered happily into her ear, "I hope that we have more than just lunch and sixth period together."

She smiled, "Thanks Ry, I hope so too."

With that, Ryan let her go and waved goodbye as he went in the same direction the other four had.

Bayli turned back around to close her locker and was startled by the four cheerleaders standing there that she had completely forgotten about. All of them had unbelieving and disapproving looks on their faces.

"A sleepover with Gabriella Montez and Taylor McKessie?!"

"A hug from Ryan Evans?!"

Once again, she didn't know how to respond, but she was again saved by her name.

"Morning Bayli!" Kelsi Nielson called as she was pulled down the hallway past the group of cheerleaders, "I'm sorry we can't stop to talk, J thinks we're going to be late!"

"Morning Bay," Jason added over his shoulder as he continued to pull Kelsi along.

"Since when does that composer girl think _she_ can talk to you?"

"Woah, calm down there Cheryl," Bayli began, "She's not some composer girl, her name is Kelsi and you know that because you were so mad when she started hanging out with J. She's really cool by the way. You just have to get to know her,"

"Ah! Are you actually sticking up for her?!" Cheryl retorted, appalled that her cheerleading captain seemed to approve of the fact that this _outsider_ had stolen one of the prime basketball boys.

"Well I-"

"Bayli!" said a high pitched voice from behind her.

Bayli swiveled around as quickly as possible upon hearing the sharpness in the way her name was said. She then breathed a sigh of relief when she realized who it was.

"Good morning Shar,"

"Oh don't you 'good morning Shar' me you little brother stealer!" Sharpay responded as she pulled on her arm to stop an anxious looking Zeke from walking any farther.

"Sharpay," Bayli breathed, "I did not steal your brother. We just went out for ice cream after everyone left last night. I'm sure you and Zeke did something too."

"Yes, well Ryan still got home after I did and we didn't get to have our annual night before school starts preparation meeting until much later than we normally do," Sharpay explained still appearing angry. Her face then suddenly softened into a smile and she continued, "Your lucky I like you so much Bay and that Ryan does otherwise, I might actually be mad at you."

"Sharpay, come on, we're going to be late and we already don't have time to stop at our lockers," Zeke half-whispered to Sharpay as he pulled on her arm. He then turned to Bayli and added, "Sorry. Good morning Bayli. We'll see you at lunch."

Sharpay then squealed and suddenly hugged Bayli extremely tightly.

"Isn't it simply fabulous that we're all going to have lunch together?!"

"Simply fabulous Shar," Bayli laughed.

Sharpay and Zeke then made their way down the hallway. Zeke was practically running while Sharpay glided along at his side, her high-heels clicking away at the fast pace.

Realizing that she had to get to homeroom within the next two minutes Bayli began searching the hallway for the face of her best friend.

"Are you going to continue pretending that we're not here?" the blonde cheerleader named Carrie interrupted her thoughts.

Bayli quickly swiveled around, "What, no, I'm sorry."

"Bayli what in the world is going on with you?" Cindy asked with impatience, "We hardly see you at all over the summer and now that we're finally all together again you're like completely ignoring us."

"And talking to all these random people, many of whom you _really_ shouldn't be associating with," Added Cheryl.

"Guys, I'm really sorry. Why don't you get to homeroom and I promise we'll catch up sometime today, okay?"

"We're all in the _same_ homeroom Bayli, don't you remember? We organized it at the end of last year so that the five of us could start off everyday together?" answered Candy.

Bayli forced a smile onto her face. In complete honesty she had forgotten that she and her fellow senior cheerleaders had worked that out. She was just thinking about the fact that over the summer she and Mollee had discovered that they would be in the same homeroom. Mollee was supposed to be meeting her at her locker so they could go together.

"Well, are you going to come?" Cindy asked.

"Yeah I was just," Bayli began as she continued to scan the hallway which was now scarce of people, "Looking for Mollee."

"Mollee?"

"Mollee who?"

"Bayli come on, we have to go."

The doors to East High were pushed open and two people walked quickly through the doors.

"I'll see you soon Mol, I hope you get to homeroom on time!" Matthew Huff called out as he ran passed the group of girls.

"You better hurry Huff, you're going to be late!" Bayli called after the boy.

"Thanks Bay, I didn't know that already!" He called over his shoulder.

Bayli laughed as Mollee Box came up behind her, linked their arms and started pulling her briskly down the hallway.

The four cheerleaders in tow exchanged annoyed and confused looks as they followed the two girls into their homeroom.

"Mollee! Where the heck were you?! The bell's going to ring any second!" Bayli exclaimed.

"I know! Oh my gosh! I was on my way to school when, out of all the possible days, my car broke down! I have no idea what's wrong with it!"

"Why didn't you call me? I would have come and gotten you!" Bayli offered as the two girls practically fell through their homeroom door as the bell rang.

"Well ladies, it's nice of you to join us," The young male teacher interrupted the conversation as the girls made their way to open seats.

"Sorry Mr. Right, my car broke down this morning," Mollee explained apologetically.

"Well I'm glad you were able to make it Mollee. Ladies," He directed his attention to the five cheerleaders, "I understand that you may be under the impression that you can do what ever you want to do this year, but the school rules _do_ still apply to you."

"Mr. Right, we weren't even late!" Cindy spoke up.

"Yeah, and we came in at the same time as Mollee and I don't hear her getting a speech," Cheryl added.

Mr. Right was about to speak up when an annoyed looking Bayli decided to speak first.

"I'm sorry Mr. Right," She began apologetically, "I'm really sorry that we're late. We know that all of the rules apply to us and in no way were we trying to get around that. I was just waiting for Mollee and I didn't realize that we were cutting it so close to the bell."

Mr. Right eyed the blonde cheerleading captain carefully. He knew that this group of girls had often taken advantage of teachers and disregarded the rules and he had Mollee in class the year before and knew that she was an excellent student who never made an attempt to break rules. He had never before seen Mollee interact with any of the cheerleaders and was baffled by the statement that the captain was waiting for her to arrive at school.

As if sensing his confusion Mollee nodded her head vigorously from the seat next to Bayli.

"Alright, well, it's not a big deal anyway. None of you were late, but know that if you are I have no problem marking you as so. Now, welcome back to East High for your last year of High School! I have each of your schedules on my desk right here so just feel free to make your way up and get them sometime during homeroom."

With that all of the students turned to their friends and began catching up from various summer activities.

Bayli went to turn to the desk on her left where Mollee sat to continue their conversation, but was stopped when Cheryl turned around to face her and the other three cheerleaders in the desks to her right gave her their full attention.

"Ok Bayli, whatever happened before homeroom, we just don't really care. We finally have time to catch up!" Carrie said with a bubbly smile.

"Yeah, we're just so excited to hear about your summer and tell you about ours," Cindy added.

"And talk about what plans we have for the squad this year," Candy put in.

"And discuss how we are going to absolutely _rule_ the school this year. East High Senior Varsity Cheerleaders! Can life get any better?!" Cheryl finished.

Bayli took a deep breath and put herself into cheerleader mode, "Aw guys! I have missed you so much! I can't wait to hear about your summers too! This year is like, totally going to rock!"

The other four cheerleaders let out sighs of relief in hearing this, feeling like finally Bayli was back to her actual self. Mollee heard this and slightly furrowed her brow at the way Bayli was talking; she didn't sound like the Bayli she knew at all.

"Ok, well where to start?! This summer was amazing! As you know, my family took a trip to Italy. It was totally the best thing of my like, entire life!" Candy started off.

"That's right! I definitely want to know if you met any cool people over there," Bayli responded, "But hold that thought for like, two seconds. I really have to go to the bathroom."

With that Bayli got up from her seat, shooting Mollee a 'come with me' look and went to Mr. Right's desk to ask for the pass.

Mollee sighed, but followed Bayli anyway, she was still her best friend, she was just…acting weird.

Once the two girls were in the hallway Bayli took in a deep breadth.

"I'm so sorry Mol. I don't know what to do. I feel like I changed so much this summer, but the other girls don't know that. I honestly didn't even think about them when I thought about us coming back to school. I know they won't understand what happened this summer."

"It's okay," Mollee answered as the girls meandered their way through the hallway, "I just felt like my best friend disappeared for a few minutes. It just seemed like you were…well the person I thought you were before I knew you."

"I know, and I don't want it to be like that. You're my best friend. You, Taylor, Gabriella, Kelsi, and Martha are my girls. I guess I just feel like when I'm with Cheryl, Cindy, Candy, and Carrie-wow, I never realized that they all started with a C-anyway, when I'm with them I just feel like I have to be _Bayli: Captain of the Cheerleading Squad_ again."

"Well you don't. No matter who is around. That's the biggest thing we learned this summer, we're all just who we are. That's why we all got so close," Mollee answered.

"I know, I know. I'll introduce you to them when we get back and then I'll try to explain that we're all friends now. It shouldn't be too big of a deal, I mean, they were my best friends the past three years; they should understand."

"I guess, but remember everything you told me this summer. Remember all the stuff about how the five of you had vowed to get the basketball guys back no matter what girls you had to step on to do it and how you working at Lava Springs this summer was supposed to be the first step of that plan?"

"Yeah," Bayli sighed, "I remember. I don't know what I'm going to do if they get mad."

"I think you may have to end up choosing Bay. Not that I, or any of our friends, would make you, but if those girls were as serious as you said you all were about this plan to get the guys back then I wouldn't put it past them."

"I know, I'm just hoping that it wouldn't come down to that. I'd hate to lose friendships that have lasted since seventh grade. Not to mention how hard cheer would be if that happened," Bayli answered as if it wasn't even a choice at all because she would chose Mollee and their friends over the others without a question.

"Well we better head back, we only have ten minutes left of homeroom and we need to get our schedules yet."

"Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you, Troy talked his dad into letting all of us have _Adult and Family Living_ together! He even got him to let us have it sixth period so that we could have lunch together!" Bayli exclaimed, happy to finally have some good news to share with her friend.

"Really?! That's so great. I kind of feel bad for whoever else has that class with us though," Mollee laughed.

"So, you called Huff to come pick you up when your car broke down?" Bayli asked with a knowing smile as the two girls made their way back to homeroom, back to the world that had no idea what had happened at Lava Springs the past summer.

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By the time fourth period came Bayli was ready to pull her hair out. She hadn't had a single class with any of her friends and her co-cheerleaders had swarmed her between every single period thus far with trivial conversations that they felt were extremely pressing.

As she sat down in a back corner of the room ready to just relax and listen to some music for her entire study hall, Bayli noticed four girls walking into the classroom talking and laughing obnoxiously loud. Rolling her eyes in her head, she plastered a smile on her face as the four cheerleaders happily made their way over to her.

"So, how was Lava Springs this summer Bayli? You totally had us going this morning with all of those conversations and stuff, but I'm sure that it was all a big joke, that you don't actually hang out with those people," Carrie started with a smile.

"Except of course Troy, Chad, Zeke, and Jason of course, you better be closer to them," Cheryl added.

"What happened at Lava Springs? I just got to know a whole bunch of new people. We worked together and got through some tough times. I actually really do hang out with all of those people, the guys _and_ the girls. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you guys about my new friends. I guess I just kind of forgot how we felt about them last year. They're all seriously so great when you get to know them and I hope that you get to know them too."

The four cheerleaders stared at her in disbelief.

"Are you for like…serious?" Cheryl spoke first.

"You want us to become friends with," Cindy started and crinkled her nose at the thought, "Gabriella Montez, Taylor McKessie, the Evans twins, Kelsi Neilson, and whoever that Mollee girl is"

"Well…yeah."

The four girls stared at her with shocked faces before Carrie started laughing hysterically. The other four turned to her with questioning looks before everyone, but Bayli was doubled over in laughter.

"Bayli…you…totally…had me going!" Carrie finally got out between her laughs.

Bayli could feel herself growing angrier by the second, "I'M NOT KIDDING! Guys listen to me! I completely understand that we promised we would get the basketball guys back this school year and that you all thought that's what I was working on this summer, but I wasn't-okay?! I really am friends with those people! The guys are lucky to have each of them. Don't you understand that their friendships are built on understanding and accepting each other?!"

"Oh no," Cheryl started with attitude as she wagged her finger in front of Bayli's face, "You are _not_ going to lecture us about friendship. You see the four of us stuck together this summer. We hung out practically everyday and only gave you a hard time about not hanging out with us six times over the whole summer! I frankly don't care what you think about those people, but if you are turning _your_ back on our friendship then we will turn our backs on you. I really hope those friends of yours are enough for you to depend on when life gets tough Bayli Martin because as of right now, you can count on us making it as tough as ever."

"LADIES!" screamed the teacher from the front of the classroom. She had been trying to gain the attention of the two girls since Bayli had screamed that she was indeed not kidding, but was blocked out by the volume of the girl's speeches.

The attention of every eye in the room was then turned from the two co-cheerleaders to the teacher.

"I do not care about your personal lives or who may be friends with whom. If you feel the need to yell at each other and disrespect the fact that other students may be using this _study_ hall to study then you are welcome to leave my classroom this instant and continue your fight on the way to the principal's office," She directed with sternness seeping through her words.

"No, we're done. I promise," Cheryl said as she sat back down in her seat and shot Bayli a death glare, "We're completely done."

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Bayli walked into the lunch room after fifth period and looked around. She saw some clear cut tables of _only_ jocks and cheerleaders, others of _only_ skaters, and others of various secluded cliques. Then she saw them. There, sitting as a big mixed up group, forming some kind of tight nit almost circle, on the bleachers. Eating their lunches together, sat the people she had spent her summer with, the people that had become like a family.

She walked over and took the empty seat right between Ryan and Mollee and pulled her lunch out of her book bag as she heard a chorus of "Bayli!"

"How's your day going so far Bay?" Troy asked from across from her with Gabriella leaning lightly into his side.

Bayli looked across the almost circle and noticed that no one had their own lunch. It seemed that they had all brought separate food, but then just put it in the middle so that anyone could have whatever they wanted.

As she looked around at her friends she finally answered the question, "My day's going great, absolutely wonderful."

Ryan wrapped his arm around her side and gave her a squeeze, "I'm very glad to hear that. I've been missing you this morning though."

"I've been missing you too," she answered as she relaxed into his side.

As Bayli Martin sat there and looked around the cafeteria, she realized that mixed in between all of the clearly defined tables; there were also tables that you could not classify if you tried, tables that had people of many different talents sitting together.

That's when it dawned on her; all of East High was changed. If you looked through the door of what had happened the previous year or the past summer, one would clearly see Troy and Gabriella.

However, if one happened to glance through a window, they would see many more stories being told, many more lives that had been changed.

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This is pretty random, but it's something that has been coming to my mind a lot lately. My first one shot so if you didn't like it…sorry about that! Lol.


End file.
